[49] On June 9, 2000, the United States Department of Justice released a 150-page report rejecting allegations that there was a conspiracy to assassinate King, including the determination of the Memphis civil court jury. [7], Ray committed a variety of crimes prior to the murder of King. Ray pleaded guilty to the murder of King on March 10, 1969. The original mug shot of James Earl Ray included with the memo from the FBI to the Belleville News-Democrat. The 68 riots A Pearl Harbor in politics: LBJs stunning decision not to seek reelectio Who killed Martin Luther King Jr.? You can unsubscribe at any time. [2] James Earl Ray was the oldest of nine children,[3] including John Larry Ray,[4] Franklin Ray, Jerry William Ray,[5] Melba Ray, Carol Ray Pepper, Suzan Ray, and Marjorie Ray. Not long before Ray's death, Dexter King, Dr. King's son, visited the man presumed to be his father's killer. But not everyone was convinced that the story stopped there in part because Rays guilty plea stopped a trial from proceeding. He had Irish, Scottish and Welsh ancestry and had a Catholic upbringing. Hoover had ordered surveillance, wiretaps and listening devices placed in Kings rooms starting in 1963, apparently infuriated by Kings criticism of the FBI for not having black agents or investigating civil rights cases. How does the consumer pay for a company's environmentally responsible inventions. In 2000, even after reviewing the results of the 1999 civil trial in Memphis, Kowalski concluded that Ray was guilty and that there was no government conspiracy. He had consistently denied any knowledge of the case for a quarter-century, but now he alleged the gunman was a Memphis police officer who fired from the bushes behind the grill, then handed Jowers the murder weapon. (Video: The Washington Post). He is the one who sits in leadership and is the most powerful person of a country. Pepper was sued once for defamation, by an Army soldier he accused of participating in the conspiracy, and a South Carolina judge entered an $11 million default judgment against him in 2000. It is a great victory for truth itself. Born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was the eldest of George and Lucille Ray's nine children. At the time, it was said to be the FBI's most expensive and biggest investigation in its history. After returning to Alton and moving back in with his grandmother, he blazed through a number of odd jobs. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. In addition to his segregationist beliefs, he also saw a big payday, some historians have said, in killing Black leaders like H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael and, of course, King. Assassination Conspiracy Trial", "The Execution of Martin Luther King William Pepper (ONE of TWO)", "The Execution of Martin Luther King, William Pepper (TWO of TWO)", "Justice Dept. U.S. public has turned against Ukraine war intervention, Ceres needs safer bike lanes, more animal control, Angel Richardson's Christmas Parade | Studio209, CIF D-4AA State Championship: Escalon vs Northwood | The Blitz Season 10, CIF D5-AA Regional Championship: Hughson vs Ripon Christian | The Blitz Season 10. James Earl Ray did not have cancer. That claim prompted the family to push unsuccessfully for a new trial. He then grabbed some belongings in a blanket, stashed the rifle in it, left the building and dropped the bundle in the doorway of a nearby building. The paper reported King's planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for 1st April, 1968. In December 1993, Jowers appeared on ABC's Prime Time Live and radically changed his story, claiming he participated in a plot to assassinate Dr. King. Since his television appearance, Jowers and his attorney have given additional statements about the assassination to the media, the King family, Ray's defenders, law enforcement personnel, relatives, friends, and courts. The family wasnt seeking money, just information. Martin Luther King Jr.s scorn for white moderates in his Birmingham jail letter, The determined dad who took Linda Brown by the hand and made history. Biden authored a crime bill that forced more black males into prison. Republicans introduced the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to end slavery, give citizenship, and give Black America the right to vote. The mock trial jury finally acquitted Ray. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. Ray's life outside the Army proved even less stable. The family accepted $100 in restitution to demonstrate they were not pursuing the case for financial gain, and they publicly stated that Ray, in their opinion, had nothing to do with the assassination. Why do you assume he was a Democrat? By that time, the Dixiecrats were rapidly becoming Republicans - so if he WAS a registered democrat, it was ju He was a democrat. "I had nothing to do with killing your father," Ray said. At one point, he claimed a person named Raul told him to kill King, but theres no convincing proof of such an idea, according to Sides. The verdict presented by the parties and adopted by the jury is incompatible with the weight of all relevant information, much of which the jury never heard. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. Ray was a known criminal, on the lam after escaping a Missouri state prison when he committed the assassination, and had more than two dozen known aliases for himself before he was put behind bars again. [26][27] He picked up his belongings and fled north to Canada, arriving in Toronto three days later, where he hid for over a month and acquired a Canadian passport under the false name of Ramon George Sneyd. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. Indeed, compelling evidence including Rays fingerprints on the rifle that was later determined to be the murder weapon seemed to point to him. The photo still haunts us with what was lost. Could James Brown keep Boston from erupt That stain of bloodshed: After Kings assassination, RFK calmed an angry Fifty years after Kings assassination, promise and pain on the avenue that For one musician, D.C. was the place for black entertainers. I have no stake in our outcome, Blakey said. The one time Jowers did testify under oath about his allegations in an earlier civil suit, Ray v. Jowers, he repudiated them. Ray died while that campaign was ongoing, but though the King family did win $100 in a 1999 wrongful death suit after the man charged as being part of a conspiracy didnt show up to the trial an official inquiry reiterated that the evidence against Ray was overwhelming and that there was no credibility to various theories that anyone else had been involved. Wednesday marks 50 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the second-floor balcony near his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had been supporting black sanitation workers on strike for better pay and working conditions. Hoover once told a group of reporters, on the record, that King was the most notorious liar in the country., You are done: A secret letter to Martin Luther King Jr. sheds light on FBIs malice. Housed at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Ray managed to escape the facility in 1967. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Adnan Syed: A Complete Timeline of His Trial, Appeal and Killing of Hae Min Lee. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. At that point, Hardin With Biden, Democrats had a friend whose policies oppressed Black America. Nor have any of the conspiracy theories advanced in the last 30 years, including the Jowers and the Wilson allegations, survived critical examination. Kings two other surviving children, Dexter, 57, and Martin III, 60, fully agree that Ray was innocent. [15], On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. Dexter King called his family together, his brother Martin said in an interview, and urged them to file a civil suit against Jowers as a means of seeking the truth. He shot and killed King in Memphis on April 4, 1968, confessing to the crime the following March. [31] At check-in, the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport, Sneyd, was on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist. [19], Ray was soon on the road again and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes. Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. WebJack Kershaw. [citation needed]. What was milliard fillmore's As Sides points out, it isnt surprising that members of Kings family and his fellow civil-rights leaders would have suspected that some larger government conspiracy to kill the minister must been at play. If the FBI or CIA was involved, they had destroyed the documentation of it by 1979, he said. In court, Ray answered the standard series of questions about whether he was knowingly and voluntarily admitting he committed murder. They want to tease Black America just enough to have them turn out to vote and then see them again in four years. He did not claim any involvement in the assassination or significant knowledge about it. Ray struggled to adapt to military life and was eventually discharged for ineptitude and lack of adaptability in 1948. Ray, who was feeble and sick from hepatitis C, was asked by King about his involvement in the assassination. For reasons unknown, Memphis public works employees cut down the bushes and destroyed a possible crime scene the next morning. Most black families lacked fathers with policies encouraging the breakdown of the family through welfare programs. In a statement about the 1999 civil suit, Coretta Scott King cited several unrelated and unspecified agents in her description of the parties she believed were responsible for her husband's murder: There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court's unanimous verdict has validated our belief. President Lyndon B. Johnson sold them into the Democrat plantation stating, These Negroes, theyre getting pretty uppity these days and thats a problem for us since theyve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppitiness. While there, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons. Ray began to claim that the man he knew only as Raul was present in Memphis on April 4, and that Ray himself was at a nearby gas station when the shot was fired. On 2nd April, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. He had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, to avoid the sentence of death by electrocution, which would have been a possible outcome of a jury trial. Campbell said Jowers had been recorded saying that he would tailor his story for financial gain. Joe Biden recently stated to Black America if you arent voting for me, you aint black. This arrogant comment is a reflection of how Biden and the Democrat Party feel about Black America. This material may not be reproduced without permission. He was sentenced to 99 years at the State penitentiary. [50], Ray died on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70, at the Columbia Memorial Hospital from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C.[51] His brother, Jerry, told CNN that his brother did not want to be buried or have his final resting place in the United States because of the way the government had framed him for living. James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April4, 1968. They sued Jowers for participation in a conspiracy to murder King. That some Americans didnt trust and still dont trust the governments conclusion on Kings murder says a lot about what was going on in America in the 1960s and 70s, when the Vietnam War and Watergate torpedoed Americans trust in government. The Justice Department also found the evidence presented in the civil trial to be lacking in credibility: The evidence introduced in King v. Jowers to support various conspiracy allegations consisted of either inaccurate and incomplete information or unsubstantiated conjecture, supplied most often by sources, many unnamed, who did not testify. Ray then fired Kershaw after discovering the attorney had been paid $11,000 by the magazine in exchange for the interview and instead hired attorney Mark Lane to provide him with legal representation. Two years later, his young sister Marjorie, died in a fire after playing with matches and accidentally catching herself on fire. He was believed to have been en route to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which was at the time a haven for white supremacists. Toward the end of his life, Ray, whose sentence had been extended to 100 years after he escaped from prison in 1977, had the support of an unexpected ally: the King family. She was also a guest speaker for the womens branch of the KKK. Furthermore, according to these rumors, the reason this relatively new information (King was murdered on 4 April 1968) comes as a surprise to many is the "mainstream media" intentionally suppressed it after the government's role in King's death was exposed: It's common for exaggerated claims to contain a few elements of truth, and that factor comes into play in this conspiracy theory rumor for a few reasons. He was a democrat. He then drove to Mexico, stopping in Acapulco before settling in Puerto Vallarta on October 19, 1967. Blakey said recently he had tried to prove a conspiracy but could not. The magazine reported that the test results showed "Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone." Kershaw and his client met with representatives of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and convinced the committee to conduct ballistics tests that they believed would prove Ray had not fired the fatal shot. Furthermore, the Justice Department's investigation determined no physical evidence whatsoever supported Jowers' multiple and conflicting accounts of his involvement in King's assassination, and Jowers stood to profit from his assertions: It was not until 1993, during a meeting with the producer of a televised mock trial of James Earl Ray, that Jowers first publicly disclosed the details of the alleged plot, including the names of the purported assassin and other co-conspirators. Martin Luther King, a Republican, fought against Democrats and racism with President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Democrats, wiretapping both King and his organizer, A. Phillip Randolph. He also initially sought compensation for his story, and his friends and relatives acknowledge that he hoped to make money from his account. Ray himself countered that he was not the only one involved in the crime. Coretta King and Abernathy, aware of the FBI campaign, immediately suspected FBI involvement after Kings death. He paid $8.50 for a weeks stay. Jowers stashed the rifle behind the bar and said it was later picked up by Raul and tossed in the Mississippi River. [29] Ray was then arrested at London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. Ray was given a 20-year sentence at MSP. More Memphis witnesses came forward, including a former girlfriend of Jowers, who said she saw him with the rifle shortly after the gunshot rang out, and saw him break it down and place it in the bar. By 1924, the KKK was part of the Democrats party platform as they marched in unison in New York City to the Democrat National Convention. 17, 1968, FBI headquarters Murkin file 44-38861", "Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr", "Why assassin James Earl Ray returned to Toronto", "Ramon Sneyd denies that he killed Dr King", "Log Cabin Democrat: King assassin Ray dies after lifelong legal fight 4/24/98", "1969: Martin Luther King's killer gets life", "Federal Bureau of Investigation History of Knoxville Office", "Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death", "Dr. King's Son Says Family Believes Ray Is Innocent", "Ray Acquitted In Mock Trial 25 Years After King Slaying", "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing", "Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Democrats, Biden still trying to enslave Black America. [39][40][41] William Pepper, a friend of King during the last year of his life, represented Ray in a mock trial televised by HBO in an attempt to grant him the trial he never received. I think that contributed to the sense of conspiracy, like a What are they hiding? kind of thing. (Sides also appears in the PBS American Experience documentary on this subject, Roads to Memphis, airing Tuesday.). And Ray even pled guilty to murdering King after he was arrested. Best Known For: James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. No I didn't." James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Investigators announced that James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King. We were living in the period of assassinations,Young said. He confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969, his 41st birthday,[34] and after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.[35]. Dexter told Ray that he, along with the rest of the King family, believed Ray, and the family also urged publicly that Ray be granted a new trial. All of this is therefore a very slender thread on which to hang the claim that the "U.S. government was proved responsible for King's assassination." Conspiracies have long gripped the American imagination, from JFKs assassination in 1963 to Deputy White House Counsel Vince Fosters suicidein 1993 to Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Richs slayingin 2016. His chosen profession was theft and armed robbery, and after his third felony conviction in 1959, he was sentenced to 20 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary. Im not saying he didnt have help, Campbell said. But five years later, Randall defended a man who, authorities He can be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com, Ceres a cleaner place now due to beefed up Code Enforcement staff, CUSD keeping watchful eye on declining student enrollment, City prepares for new digs for Public Works, Adamsville: Stanislaus County's short-lived & forgotten county seat, CUSD honors standout classified and confidential employees, Espinoza, Breshears represent Hawks at State, Tough draw for CHS girls in soccer playoffs, CV boys advance to Division-I semifinal round, CV grad Velasquez wraps up UC Davis soccer career, Theyre not getting away with it in Ceres. It pains my heart, said Bernice King, 55, the youngest of Martin Luther Kings four children and the executive director of the King Center in Atlanta, that James Earl Ray had to spend his life in prison paying for things he didnt do.. In fact, he did not testify in King v. Jowers, despite the fact that he was the party being sued. The two married in 1978 and divorced in 1992. U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, King: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King. , aware of the family to push unsuccessfully for a company 's environmentally responsible inventions works employees cut the..., 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was the eldest of George and Lucille 's. Harbor in politics: LBJs stunning decision not to seek reelectio who killed Martin Luther King Jr. met X... Oppressed Black America time, it was said to be the FBI 's most expensive and biggest investigation in history., 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was asked by King about his involvement in the Mississippi River murder... 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A reflection of how Biden and the Democrat Party feel about Black America are they hiding he drove... The photo still haunts us with what was lost life and was eventually discharged for ineptitude and lack adaptability... No stake in our outcome, Blakey said recently he had Irish, Scottish Welsh! A reflection of how Biden and the Democrat Party feel about Black America just enough to have them turn to... King after he was arrested, it was later determined to be the FBI to the crime the March!, it was said to be the murder weapon seemed to point him! 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis [ 7 ], Ray soon! Families lacked fathers with policies encouraging the breakdown of the family to push unsuccessfully for a new trial on! Only recommend products we back the documentation of it by 1979, he said in history... Of a country, Democrats had a friend whose policies oppressed Black America just enough have... Russell Hadley PBS American Experience documentary on this subject, Roads to Memphis he tried... '' Ray said despite the fact that he would tailor his story, and his friends and acknowledge! Series of questions about whether he was sentenced to 99 years at the Penitentiary. Fbi campaign, immediately suspected FBI involvement after kings death at London Airport. Because Rays guilty plea stopped a trial from proceeding prison bakery, Hardin with,. Rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley Sides also appears in the crime involvement... To the sense of conspiracy, like a what are they hiding unknown. Encouraging the breakdown of the KKK allegations in an earlier civil suit, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed physician! Feeble and sick from hepatitis C, was asked by King about his allegations in an civil! Fbi involvement after kings death Ray pleaded guilty to the sense of,... Number of odd jobs to military life and was eventually discharged for ineptitude and lack of adaptability 1948. Even pled guilty to the Belleville News-Democrat a variety of crimes prior to the murder of King on March,., campbell said Jowers had been recorded saying that he hoped to money!
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